IMD head argues case for knowledge transfer
The outgoing president of the prestigious IMD business school says the transfer of knowledge should be a priority for business leaders, educators and politicians.
Peter Lorange, who retires from the Lausanne-based school at the end of the month after 15 years in the post, told swissinfo that some Swiss universities were not moving fast enough in communicating with business.
“In practice it’s been very much academia in its ivory tower and there’s no knowledge transfer… but that’s certainly not the way we work here at IMD.”
By knowledge transfer, Lorange means the flow of information and ideas that are exchanged between universities and the business world. He also cites two-way respect, two-way listening and two-way open mindedness.
Lorange, who is Norwegian, offers a simple equation – he says it’s not “rocket science” – for leaders to bear in mind.
He argues that a country in which knowledge transfer is highly developed scores higher in overall competitiveness rankings.
Lorange says it’s not a formula that works in all cases but for smaller countries with a population of under 20 million, including Switzerland, it generally holds true.
“These smaller countries have the benefit of being more flexible in terms of transferring knowledge into society than larger nations with big populations.”
He names Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland as examples of how knowledge transfer between companies and universities is an important part of overall competitiveness.
Critical role
Lorange says research and development plays a critical role in knowledge transfer but what are equally as important as the content and ideas of R & D are the speed and efficiency in which they are spread and shared with society.
As for R & D in Switzerland, Lorange does not mince his words.
“We are doing very well but we are skewed. If you take the Swiss academic scene, you have the top of the top at the two federal institutes of technology in Zurich and Lausanne, and at the IMD.
“But frankly many of the normal universities in Switzerland are not really in there. They are way behind.”
Lorange advocates minimising organisational structures, trying to be more open, and says academicians should be “network driven” as opposed to “silo driven”.
Two-way street
He says IMD is very dependent on knowledge transfer, which is a two-way street.
He also points out that universities that are excelling have less focus on academic departments, titles and hierarchy.
“What’s really important is that we get the latest of what business is thinking and they get the latest of what we are doing based on our research and that we then have a dialogue on that.
“Knowledge transfer means inspiration, it means excitement, it means thinking,” he said.
Lorange’s message is that if academia is going to be good, it must be based on research that is interesting to business. That research has to be brought quickly into the classroom with the best of business people for dialogue.
“That creates positive tension, positive thinking and great insights,” he said.
Lorange is to be succeeded by John Wells, who is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School.
swissinfo, Robert Brookes in Lausanne
IMD is one of the world’s leading graduate business schools.
It was established in 1990 from the merger of two previously independent business schools: IMI, founded in Geneva by Alcan in 1946, and IMEDE, founded in Lausanne in 1957 by Nestlé.
Every year around 8,000 executives, representing more than 98 nationalities, attend more than 20 open-enrolment Executive Development Programs (including intensive MBA and EMBA programmes).
The IMD MBA class is made up of 90 participants from more than 35 nationalities. The programme lasts 11 months
The Financial Times (2007) ranked IMD’s executive education programmes 1st outside the US and 3rd worldwide.
IMD’s MBA was ranked 1st worldwide in the 2007 FT “Ranking of Rankings”, the combined global annual MBA rankings from Business Week, The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.
Peter Lorange describes IMD’s business model as fundamentally different from other top business schools.
“We no longer have any academic departments, we no longer have any titles and we no longer have tenure, in other words life-long employment. You see all of that in other schools.
“We have huge bonuses for a job well done every year. You have to earn your stripes every year, so to speak. In most other universities, it’s only fixed pay.”
He argued this model represented a particularly “painful” challenge to classical universities.
Lorange is the author of a new book called Thought Leadership Meets Business (Cambridge University Press), which draws on his experience at IMD.
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